Our Trustees

Key Responsibilities

• Chair of the Board of Trustees
• Member of Governance & Nominations Committee

Experience

15 years experience in mainly national health charities.

Currently, Sam is Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Alzheimer’s Research UK. She leads the political strategy and influencing function of the charity to bring about faster, more accurate diagnosis and access to new treatments.

Sam has also worked for Alzheimer’s Society, Breast Cancer Now and Rethink Mental Illness in Senior Leadership roles.

She worked in the campaigns team at Age UK for 7 years influencing on a range of issues: the Equality Act, the Care Act and wider social care reform; malnutrition, footcare, and access to information and advice services.

At Age UK, Sam was also the Shop Steward of the trade union involved in negotiating terms and conditions for employees post-merger including restructures, office moves and HR policies.

Relevant Qualifications

• BSc in Environmental Policy

Personal

Sam is a local resident in Croydon, and in her spare time she is an avid baker and sometime runner of 10ks and half marathons

Key Responsibilities

• Treasurer
• Member of Finance Committee

Relevant Qualifications

• BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance
• Chartered Management Accountant

Experience

15 years of experience as an accountant.

Oumesh started his practice 12 years ago as a Chartered Management Accountant in Croydon. Prior to that Oumesh did his training with accountancy firms in South London.

His practice provides accountancy and tax services to micro and small businesses in Croydon and South London.

Personal

Oumesh was born in Mauritius and went to University in Wolverhampton before moving to London. His hobbies include reading, cooking, football, formula 1 and technology advances.

Key Responsibilities 

• Member of the Board of Trustees
• Chair Governance & Nominations Committee

Relevant Qualifications

• MA Business & Public Sector Strategy

Experience 

35 years' experience working in Health and Social Care, including Director level appointments. 

In recent years, Brenda has worked for a number of London Local Authorities and the NHS, including in Croydon, where her work focused on developing integrated care services with local people which aim to improve their health and well-being.   Throughout her career, a particular area of interest has been understanding different organisational cultures and strengthening relationships between professional groups which enable people to identify common ground and solutions to entrenched problems.   Most recently, she has been working on improvements to patient experience and discharge planning at one of our London hospitals.  

Brenda has had a long-term interest in end of life care issues from her time at Trinity Hospice in the 1980s.  In recent years, she has contributed to policy development through the National Board for Palliative and End of Life Care, and has been a member of the London End of Lifecare Network since 2013.   

Personal

Brenda was born in Deptford where she still lives.    She is a Trustee of Lewisham Choral Society and is currently chair - trying to sustain members' motivation during Lockdown when both singing and gathering together are strictly off-limits. Not an easy task!

Opama is the Head of Digital Place at Croydon Council. Her role is to enhance the borough through digital innovation, technology and infrastructure improvements to create a more efficient, sustainable place. 

Opama leads the digital connectivity and smart city programme in Croydon, supports growth and investment into Croydon’s tech sector as well as digital skills education and inclusion support for residents. 

Opama’s career has spanned corporate finance, management consultancy and investment management within the international corporate real estate sector, as well as inward investment and economic development. 

Experience:

Dee Davison is Director of Sustainability, Culture and Engagement at Deluxe Media Entertainment. She has worked in the media industry for 20 years in both commercial and public sector roles.

Dee began her career as a policy adviser in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport where she advised Ministers on issues including film tax relief, cultural policy, dance and European film support.

This was followed by a period investing public funds in growth strategies for film across the UK and leading industry wide campaigns promoting accessibility and sustainability of cinemas.

Since 2013, Dee has worked at Deluxe Media and Entertainment and held several corporate positions covering strategy, operations, property and CSR. She is now Global Director of Sustainability, leading the company efforts towards carbon reduction, sustainable corporate partnerships and workforce engagement.

Having spent many years volunteering with community initiatives and is passionate about the power of businesses to effect change through Corporate Social Responsibility.

Dee has a particular interest in improving the lives of older people. She is the Founder of Generations Café, an intergenerational initiative in Berkshire and spent many years volunteering with Re-Engage a charity supporting older people to make connections in their local communities.

Relevant Qualifications:

BSc. (Honors) in Business Information Systems, University Of Greenwich (UK)

Experience:

Imran brings over 20 years of international experience in advisory and leadership of global IT & Business Transformation programs, across HR, Financial and Supply Chain.

He has extensive experience across a variety of industries including, Consulting, Financial Services, Oil & Gas & Defense, working in Executive positions with multi-national Corporates, including The Prudential, Suncor Energy, Compass UK and Babcock International. As an experienced and passionate leader with hands-on experience of successfully delivering large-scale, complex digital transformation programmes.

Imran is currently working as Programme Director, with a boutique HR Advisory and Transformation Firm, AKT Global. He is responsible for the HRIS delivery function for key accounts within the UK Market.

Prior to joining AKT, Imran was appointed the Global Programme Director for Compass Group UK, where he led the IFRS 16 Global Finance Compliance Programme. He mobilised & led a global team of 100+ and implemented a global IFRS16 target operating model & Cloud based Accounting System for the finance function that was implemented across 42 countries.

Imran also spent 12yrs with Suncor Energy, most recently as Head of the Enterprise Applications Group and was part of the Senior Executive development programme. He successful lead IT and Business Transformation programmes across EMEA and North Africa.